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When you get to camp, the deck and aluminum extension bars turn into a large table for cooking and food prep. The Wingman turns a canoe into a really stable mother ship, capable of carrying fresh food and cold drinks, and accommodating large dogs or standing anglers. Who really wants the raft and all the fussiness it calls for anyway?

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Jackson Kayak Tip of the Week By Zofia Tula Flatwater paddling allows us to focus on the small things, which in turn improves our freestyle kayaking. I think this is especially true for women who have a harder time covering up improper technique with strength. And all paddlers can benefit from learning symmetry and proper

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By Sam Boykin While visiting Charlotte, N.C., this summer, 18-year-old Lauren Seitz, along with several other members of the Westerville, Ohio, church choir, decided to check out the U.S. National Whitewater Center (USNWC). The sprawling outdoor sports complex has mountain bike trails, rock climbing walls and ziplines. But the main attraction is the Class IV

Two brothers tackle and claim the 194-pound blue marlin in Oahu, 2008

The second heaviest kayak-caught fish to make it to a scale was a tag-team effort by brothers Kevin and Gareth Uyeda, pioneers in Hawaii’s growing scene. They still fish together, these days on a Hobie Mirage Tandem Island. In 2008, they were aboard a modest Ocean Kayak Zest tandem paddle kayak.

Typically for these stories, it is late in the day. They are a long five miles from shore. The Uyedas start in, trailing a dead opelu. The offering proves irresistible to a blue marlin.

Kevin picks up the rod, sets the hook, then passes it to his brother Gareth up on the bow. “We let it tow us, the best ride I the world,” Kevin says.

When the marlin heads out to sea, the pair deploys a drift chute to slow it, steering the big fish toward shore. “It gassed out with 900 feet of line out. Hand-lining it up was painful. Both of us cramped our hands by the time we got it up,” Kevin recalls.

The fish is too heavy for the kayak, so they wrap a PFD around it to help float it. Just like Santiago, they strap the marlin to the side of the kayak and start the long crawl home. “We didn’t want anyone to help us. We wanted to be the first to paddle out and back in (with a marlin),” Kevin says. It took them three and a half hours, long past sunset.

“There’s no such thing as too big,” says Kevin, and he means it. “Our goal is to catch the biggest fish possible.” If anyone breaks the 200-pound kayak tuna mark, it’s likely to be these guys.